The challenge: making values real, not just visible
Most businesses have values. They’re often on the website, sometimes on the wall. Integrity. Innovation. People First. The problem is that these words look the same on every business’s page. They don’t tell a candidate anything specific about what it means to work for you.
Effective values communication is not about the words themselves. It’s about the evidence that sits behind them. What do those values look like in practice? What decisions has the business made because of them? What would someone experience in their first month that would show these values in action, rather than just on a poster?
If you can’t answer those questions with specific examples, your values communication probably isn’t working as hard as it could be.
Translating values into visible evidence
The most effective way to make values visible is to let your people tell the story. Employee voices, real examples, and genuine testimonials are far more credible to a candidate than anything written by a founder or a marketing team. Candidates are sophisticated. They know how to spot the difference between a business that genuinely lives its values and one that has written them on a wall.
For a values-led business, this might mean sharing stories about decisions the business made that cost money in the short term but were right for the mission. It might mean showcasing how team members have grown, what the working environment actually feels like, or what it means in practice to be part of a team that cares about sustainability, inclusion, or community.
A culture book or employer brand document is one of the most effective ways to pull all of this together. It gives candidates, new starters, and existing team members a clear, honest picture of what the business stands for and what they’re joining.
What this looks like for a sustainability-led business
Veg Life is a pioneering plant-based food business founded during the pandemic with a clear mission: to challenge perceptions around plant-based products and build something genuinely sustainable. For a business like this, values alignment isn’t just nice to have. It’s the whole point.
When they came to us, they had a strong culture and a genuine story. What they didn’t have was a way to share it with new team members and potential employees in a way that felt as compelling as the mission itself.
We created a 14-page branded culture book that included a welcome note, their mission and what makes them unique, details of their innovations and sustainability goals, and practical information for the team. The process of creating it was, by their own account, as valuable as the finished document.
“I found the exercise of collating the information very valuable and the handbook that has been created will help with the business’s growth as the team and the business grows. If we had not had this funded, we would not have these resources to use within the business.”
The culture book now gives every new team member a clear, honest picture of what Veg Life stands for and what they’re joining. That’s values communication done well.
How to make your values work for your hiring
Go beyond the words. For every value you list, identify a real example of how it has shaped a decision or a behaviour in your business. That example is what makes the value real to a candidate.
Let your people tell the story. Employee quotes, testimonials, and stories from real team members are more credible than anything a founder writes about themselves. If your team wouldn’t say those things about working for you, that’s worth knowing too.
Make it visual. A wall of text describing your values is much harder to connect with than a designed document that uses imagery, layout, and your brand identity to bring them to life. The format matters as much as the content.
Put it where candidates look. Job adverts, the careers section of your website, and social media are all opportunities to give candidates a taste of your culture before they apply. A candidate who has already connected with your values before they apply is a much better starting point than one coming in cold.
If you’re a values-led business that wants to attract like-minded people and keep them, get in touch with the team today.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call
About the author
Lisa Murphy FCIPD, CEO and Founder of Limelite HR & Learning. Lisa is a multi-award winning HR and leadership expert and Fellow of the CIPD, specialising in strategic HR, inclusion and organisational development. She’s passionate about helping organisations build amazing places to work. Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.
